"I live in Amsterdam since some considerable time I drink no strong
liquors, nor do I smoke tobacco and with all this--I have not been
_attacked_ by those agues and fevers w^h frequently reign here from the
month of Juin to the end of the autumn: and twenty foreigners whom I
know, do follow the same system, and are still as healthy as I myself;
while I have seen a great many of natives taking their drams and
smoking their pipes _ad libitem_, and moreover _chawing_ tobacco in a
quite disgusting manner, who," &c.
An Amsterdam Sunday, p. 42.:
"On sundays and holydays the shops and warehouses, and, _intra muros_,
those of public entertainment are _close_: the devotees go to church,
and sanctify the sabbath. Others go to walk outside the towngates:
after their walk, they hasten to fine public-play-gardens, where wine,
thea, &c. is sold. Neither the mobility remains idle at _these_
entertainments. Every one invites his damsel, and joyously they enter
play-gardens of a little less brilliancy than the former. There, at the
crying sound of an instrument that _rents_ the ear, {347} accompanied
by the delightful handle-organs and the rustic triangle, their tributes
are paid to Terpsichore; every where a similitude of talents: the
dancing outdoes not the musician."
Description of the Assize Court:
"The forefront has a noble and sublime aspect, and is particularly
characteristical to what it ought to represent. It is built in a
division of three fronts in the corinthic order: each of them consists
in four raizing columns, resting upon a general basement, from the one
end of the forefront to the other, and supporting a cornish, equally
running all over the face; upon this cornish rests a balustrad, like
the other pieces altogether of Bremen-hardstone. The middle front,
serving for the chief entrance, is adorned with the provincial arms,
sculpted by Mr. Gabriel, &c.... Every where a sublime plan, and exact
execution is exhibited here, and the whole tends as much to the
architects, who are the undertakers of it, as they have earned great
praizes by building anew the burnt Lutheran church."
I will not trespass on your space by any further extracts; but these will
suffice to show that my book is _sui generis_, and worth commemoration.